This blog used to be about politics. Not so much anymore as I have worked through
my fascination with that subject. It now seems appropriate that with a new president
and the end of the Bush nightmare that I move on to new subjects that are more in
line with my current interests. I may still occasionally express an opinion about
political matters but for the most part I will be commenting on music, photography
and personal observations. Thank you for reading.

I love the language we avoid. So much gets reintepreted once you start using phrases like "War on Terror" instead of "The invasion and occupation of Iraq". Phrases like "War on Terror" are ridiculous and shouldn't be taken seriously. They serve no other purpose than to mislead, and anyone that puts forth such deceptive language does so to hide their motives and intent. Terror is an emotion. We can have a strategy to prevent "terrorism", which is a tactic, but we can't fight a war against terrorism, and you can't fight a war to defeat "terror". The very idea is absurd.

But, politicians do love the word "war".

So, right now we are in the midst of trying to accomplish the hard part in Iraq, which we denied would even be a problem. Its a bit like jumping out of an airplane and planning for the landing on the way down, convinced that the problem would just magically solve itself. But there weren't any rose petals to cushion our landing.

So now we fight "insurgents", people who feel so strongly about our invasion that they wish to kill our soldiers. In the new version of the story, killing them will defeat "terror". Merely suggesting that some of these people might have a legitimate beef is considered beyond the pale. After all, "September 11th". "Changed everything".

Oddly enough, the very same people that argued that this very thing (long term occupation and chaos in Iraq) would not happen, are now trying to deflect the blame onto the media. The fact that we had no plans to deal with the hard part following the invasion is irrelavant because pointing this fact out is the real cause for "our defeat".